This evening sale is one of
three important Impressionist and Modern Art auctions this spring
at Sotheby's. The night before, Sotheby's is offering a selection
from the collection of the late Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney
and the next night it is offering Part 2.

This auction is a bit uneven
in quality, but has several major works, the most important of
which is a magnificent portrait, shown above, by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
(1864-1901), Lot 123. This lovely work should be the bellweather
of the current art market. It is estimated at $6,000,000 to $8,000,000,
but should fetch more than $20 million because of its very high
quality and rarity. It is being sold by the Nahmad family who
purchased it in 1991, when the art market was in the midst of
a major collapse in the wake of the 1987 stock market crash, after
it failed to sell at Christie's.

The two sales could not
have been more different as not only did this lot not sell in
this auction, but also 16 others out of the 48 lots that were
offered. (Three were withdrawn, lots 101, 126 and 147.) In addition,
10 of the 32 lots that did sell were knocked down below their
low estimates. Although the main auction room was packed for the
tickets only evening sale, very few lots elicited any bids from
those in public attendance as most of the bidding was conducted,
at a snail's pace, over telephones. The auctioneer, Tobias Meyer,
head of Sotheby's contemporary at department worldwide, could
muster scant humor, or paddle-waving and was remarkably fast in
knocking down as passes several prominent lots. It is hard to
comprehend that the night before he had had such success. No one
has ever matched the wit and sensitive rhythms of John Marion,
Sotheby's star auctioneer who retired as chairman in 1965, and
no one probably will, and certainly not Meyer whose sound system
was boomy enough to obscure his comments at the start.

If the Whitney sale was
a smashing sucess, this was an unmitigated disaster and the fault
cannot be that estimates were too high or that the quality was
terrible. Sotheby's has been brilliant at hyping the "collector"
auction and the mystique of the Whitney name clearly made an incredible
difference. The auction house's success at this form of marketing
obviously coincides with this Tabloid Era of celebrity, which
overshadows content in much of our culture, sadly. One cannot
blame Sotheby's for its strategic promotional flair, but perhaps
some restraint, if not a great deal, is needed to curb telephone
bidding as it does not make for good theater, which apparently
was what most of the well-dressed auction-goers came for. One
almost felt as if the auctioneer was surprised at the rare bid
from the room rather than the two large banks of attended but
not active telephones.

Lautrec had discovered the
model for his fine, unsold painting, which was passed
at $4.6 million, Carmen Gaudin, a seamstress, on the street
outside a Paris café where he was dining with his friend
Henri Rachou in 1885. The Sotheby catalogue quotes Naomi Mauri
who wrote about the painting in a catalogue of a Lautrec exhibition
at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1979:

"Since Carmen had red
hair, she was a perfect model for...Lautrec's use in general,
as he had a passion for redheads....Catching a glimpse of the
simple working girl's russet hair and gamin face, Lautrec was
overcome with enthusiastic admiration and, exclaiming to Rachou
that she had a wonderful raw quality, begged him to approach her
and persuade her to become his model."

The Sotheby catalogue comments
that the model's "flaming hair color and robust features
led Lautrec to believe the woman to be a strong-willed shrew,
but he later found her to be a docile and pliant model."
"The victim of an abusive lover, Carmen had an air of suffering,
of both timidity and violent emotion. She was frequently portrayed
with her eyes downcast and her hair tied back, but in slight disarray
(unquestionably from the working class). The artist appears to
have been sympathetically disposed to Carmen as he beautifully
captures the tension of her emotions. As she was not a professional
model, Lautrec must have admired her more natural manner as there
is greater naturalism and absence of artifice in his portrayals
of her."

The catalogue also quotes Charles
Stuckey's essay in the Art Institute of Chicago catalogue:

"Lautrec is a consummate
master at intensifying the essential quality of form by juxtaposing
it with forms of a contrasting nature. His characteristic use
of this device sets his work apart from that of the Impressionists
with their more homogeneous surfaces. Lautrec extended this artistic
idea to all other aspects of the picture as well. While the Impressionists'
colors are rich and sensuous, Lautrec intensifies his even further
by juxtaposing contrasting complementaries. The carefully orchestrated
oppositions of orange and blue-violet, cerise and green, have
a vibrancy that is reinforced by the bold, energetic facture.
While Manet and Renoir tended to handle the picture surface fairly
evenly, giving equal attention to both figure and ground, Lautrec
concentrates attention more closely on his model by contrasting
her densely painted form with the more thinly and sketchily treated
peripheries of the canvas. Finally, whereas his older colleagues
were preoccupied exclusively with the decorative effects of forms
and colors seen in outdoor light, Lautrec reveals his abiding
concern for capturing some quality of inner life in his subject.
The single detail of the women's eye gazing fixedly into the distance
beyond the picture frame suggests idle meditation, an essential
human activity that the Impressionist seldom sought to portray."

This is excellent commentary
that hopefully will inspire bidders to put Lautrec on a proper
pedestal and not squander their funds on lesser works by other
famous names.

Detail of Lot 113,"Woman
at her Toilet," by Edgar Degas, oil on canvas, 32
1/2 by 30 1/4 inches

Another major work is Lot 113,
"Woman at her Toilet," shown in a detail above, by Edgar
Degas, which was painted between 1895 and 1900 and is conservatively
estimated at only $3,000,000 to $4,000,000. The painting is closely
related to a pastel by the artist that has a broader composition
and a more defined chair. The sketchiness of its lower portion
and the fact that it is stamped with a signature rather than signed
suggests that the artist might not have been finished with it.

This is a very sumptuous work
with quite a bold palette and bravura brushwork.

"It is in the late oil
paintings of Degas," the catalogue notes, "that one
sees most clearly the complex nature of his relationship to the
achievements of the old masters that he so revered. Technically
he reverted to many of the practices that characterized the work
of the Venetian masters of the sixteenth century but at the same
time his approach was bold and innovative....The increasing freedom
and confidence in his brushwork was also encouraged by Degas's
study of his Venetian predecessors. Denis Rouart, son of Degas's
friend and patron, Alexis Rouart, associated his constant use
of hand and thumbprints in the late canvases with a documented
practice of Titian." It was passed at $2,250,000!

Another highlight of the auction
is Lot 115, a river scene in Asnieres, by Paul Signac (1863-1935)
that was painted in 1887 and has a very low estimate of $1,500,000
to $2,000,000. The suburb of Asnieres northwest of Paris attracted
several painters included the great Pointillist, Georges Seurat,
who completed his first major painting there, and Vincent Van
Gogh who also depicted the town's river. This is a superb work
with wonderful light and a fine composition. It sold for $1,800,000,
not counting the buyer's premium.

The most expensive work in
this auction is Lot 116, a haystack by Claude Monet (1840-1926).
The 1891 oil on canvas has an estimate of $8 million to $12 million.
It is one of more than 30 known canvases of such subjects by Monet,
but it is not the most inspired although the catalogue goes to
great lengths to boost its significance by quoting the impact
of seeing one of these pictures on Wassily Kandinsky and noting
that it is one of three that are unusually cropped, supposedly
heralding the artist's increasing interest in abstraction. Speaking
of these three, the catalogue states that "They are among
the most important of any works executed by Monet before he began
his first series of Water Lilies (1903-1907) and offer
a defining moment in the history of modern art." Perhaps,
but such a history probably has too many defining moments and
Monet has many far better. This work has also been consigned by
the Nahmad family which acquired it after it failed to sell at
Christie's in London in 1990. It was once owned by Mrs. Potter
Palmer, the great Chicago collector. This painting sold for
$10,900,000 (not counting the buyer's premium) in what seemed
to be an eternity of tiny bidding increments by the auctioneer.

A far more interesting Monet
is Lot 122, an 1892 work that was No. 10 in the original Durand-Ruel
exhibition of the Rouen Cathedral series in 1895. This oil on
canvas, 36 1/2 by 26 inches, has an estimate of only $1,000,000
to $1,500,000. The catalogue notes that "The strong sense
of sculptural and architectural fom which is particularly evident
in this work distinguishes it from other paintings in the series
which are more concerned with the changing effects of light on
the surface of the cathedral." "This composition,"
it continued, "is particularly audacious in that it does
not rely for its effect on the symmetry of the facade, but places
most of the weight to the left of the canvas....In this work Monet
establishes the vast scale of the cathedral by contrasting it
with the group of houses to the right. The intimacy of these comparatively
small dwellings is established by the marvellous mottling of green
and white pigment in the lower casements." This painting
was passed at $850,000!

For lovers of Monet, however,
the most desirable work in this auction, and one that is pretty
desirable period, is Lot 119, "Waterloo Bridge, Effet de
Brouillard." This 1903 oil on canvas, 25 7/8 by 39 5/8 inches,
is estimated at only $4,000,000 to $6,000,000 and should be able
to add an extra digit. A pale blue work, it has a Whistlerian,
even a Turneresque quality that is more tranquil than some of
his great sunset impressions of the Houses of Parliament. While
blander than that great series, it is quite poetic. The catalogue
notes that Monet was particularly fascinated by the fog and industrial
pollution at this location on the Thames. It adds that Monet met
Whistler in 1887 and also quotes Monet as stating that "without
the fog London wouldn't be a beautiful city." One of the
few successes of the auction, this sold for $8.5 million (not
counting the buyer's premium).

Incredibly, this Monet is estimated
less than a conventional, fine, pretty ballerina painting by Edgar
Degas, Lot 120," a pastel that has an estimate of $6,000,000
to $8,000,000. The Degas, which once belonged to Edgar William
and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, is nice, but not in the same league
of the Waterloo Bridge Monet, but then it takes a long time for
people who can consider such large expenditures to begin to gain
a connoisseur's eye. The Degas pastel was passed at $4 million!

A very large and dramatic Paul
Klee, "Feuerquelle," Lot 131, also is estimated at $6,000,000
to $8,000,000, which is a bit ambitious although it is quite stunning.
It was passed at $5,400,000.

The auction also includes a
good Cezanne landscape, Lot 106, which sold within its estimate
for $2.3 million (not counting the buyer's premium); an impressive,
large Henry Moore sculpture, Lot 141, which sold considerably
below its low estimate for $1,600,000 (not counting the buyer's
premium); some interesting large Vuillards, Lots 133, which
passed at $1.3 million and had been estimated at $2 million
to $3 million, and 136, which sold for $300,000 and had a low
estimate of $400,000; and a fine sculpture of a female torso
by Aristide Maillol, Lot 111, which sold just shy of its low
estimate for $480,000 (not counting the buyer's premium);
a lovely marble sculpture of a brother and sister by Auguste Rodin,
Lot 109, which sold a bit above its high estimate for $750,000
(not counting the buyer's premium); and a good Bonnard painting,
Lot 107, which sold within its estimate for $1.4 million (not
counting the buyer's premium).

The only lot that drew several
bids from the room was Lot 139, a very good sculpture of a dancer
by Jacques Lipschitz (1891-1973). It sold for $380,000 (not counting
the buyer's premium) and had had a high estimate of $250,000.